appears holding an umbrella. She wraps her arms around my wet shoulders, hugging me as I cry for what feels like the millionth time this week.
“What happened?” she asks.
I shake my head. “The door was open, and I wasn’t paying attention. She got out and ran over here.”
“We’ll find her.”
I shake my head. “It’s my fault.”
Rose runs her hand over my back. “We’ll find her. She’s chipped, and everything’s going to be okay. What about Arlo? Is Matt still here?”
I shake my head again. “God, Rose. I don’t even know what happened. I don’t know why I answered the door.”
“I’m amazed he came. He’s never been here.”
“I know. I think he wanted me to help him get into Brighton.”
Rose’s face sours. “Of course.”
“It might have been for good intentions. Maybe it was to be here with me, but it didn’t feel like it.”
Rose shakes her head. “It wasn’t, otherwise, you wouldn’t have an ounce of doubt. He would have tried this before when Brighton wasn’t undefeated. He wouldn’t have kissed other girls, and he would have called you and visited and remembered things like your class schedule.”
“What am I going to do?”
Rose settles her hand on my shoulder, holding me securely in place. “We’re going to get through it. Together.”
We spend the next couple of hours calling for Juliet and asking people if they saw her. Eventually, we make it back to the apartment, my muscles cold and aching, my clothes still soaked.
“You should take a warm shower. I’ll call all the animal shelters and see if anyone’s reported anything, and post on all the social media channels.”
“I’ll help.”
Rose shakes her head. “Help me by not catching pneumonia. You know how I feel about hospitals.”
I relent, my jaw sore from my teeth chattering. The water hurts as it warms my skin, and when I hear someone knocking on the door, I nearly cry again, but this time with relief as hope fills me. I rush through washing myself and am barely dry before I pull on the pair of jeans and sweatshirt I’d brought in to wear.
Words are lining up, preparing for me to apologize and explain what happened and how it meant nothing, but stop when I see my dad and Whitney.
Rose looks at me, her lips pursed. I can read her discomfort, the fact she wants to stand up for me always her initial reaction.
“What are you guys doing here?” I ask.
Rose steps next to me, handing me a cup of hot coffee, fixed the way I like it.
“We wanted to come by and talk with you. There’s so much going on, and we want to ensure we talk about them and make sure we’re all on the same page,” Whitney says.
“You kept the clock,” Dad says randomly, looking at the giant piece that I struggled to know what to do with like most of the things I became the owner of when my mom passed away. “Mom always liked it.”
Dad smirks. “But you always hated it.”
He’s right. “It makes it feel like home.”
Whitney smiles. “It does, doesn’t it?”
Dad nods, taking a seat on the couch. I remain standing, Rose at my side. Whitney moves to sit beside him, her hands on her knees as Dad clears his throat. “I’ve been avoiding this conversation for a very long time, but I suppose that’s why it’s now coming to bite me in the ass. You can’t hide from the truth.”
Whitney smiles gently at him.
“I met Ellen while I was the offensive coordinator for Portland. I was up in Seattle, celebrating with some friends, and I walked into a bar with some buddies and saw the most beautiful woman I’d seen up to that point in my life.” He looks at Whitney with an apology written across his furrowed brow.
“That’s okay,” Whitney tells him. “You hadn’t met me yet.”
Dad grins, placing a hand on her knee. “Ellen was exciting and mysterious and beautiful, and by the end of the night, I was willing to give up everything I’d worked for to follow her. We spent a weekend together, and then she left for LA, where she was moving to become an actress, and I went back to Portland. I tried calling her and even went as far as buying a plane ticket to go see her, but she called things off and said it was just a fling—she didn’t want anything serious.
“I had no idea she was pregnant. I didn’t know until Holly contacted me when you were five.”
I blink